It Happened to People Like Us

These video clips are frightening....Is MTV trying to 'remember' the holocaust or prevent a new one, I'm not sure? Is this what martial law will look like?

Ah Clever Lawn...

"What if human consciousness isn't the end-all and be-all of Darwinism? What if we are all just pawns in corn's clever strategy game to rule the Earth?" I love this Ted Talk, The Omnivore's Next Dilemma with Michael Pollan, that explains plant's relationship to us as humans and a view of the world from the plant's-eye.

Why are We Bailing Out Executive Pay?

WHY ARE WE BAILING OUT EXTRAVAGANT EXECUTIVE PAY?
from Jim Hightower's Common-Sense Commentaries

Well, isn’t this special? Despite Washington’s assurance to us angry commoners that its Wall Street bailout scheme would, by gollies, include a crackdown on excessive pay to top executives – there seems to be a few loopholes.

The Guardian newspaper in London analyzed corporate pay plans that were recently drawn up by Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, and Lehman Brothers. The highest-ranking executives of these banks are to split a total of $70 billion in salaries and bonuses this year.

Bonuses? The stock prices of the firms have plummeted in the past year, Lehman Brothers has collapsed completely, the bungling executives have caused a global financial crisis, and the five remaining banks are down now down in Washington loading up their share of a $700 billion taxpayer bailout. They get bonuses for that?

The math is infuriatingly easy here: This $70 billion executive payout means that honchos in these firms will siphon off 10 percent of the bailout funds that were supposed to shore up our economy – not reward executive failure.

Meanwhile, there’s the loudly ballyhooded effort by Congress to restrict future pay for the big shots at banks getting bailout money. Congress’s bark was ferocious, but its bite turns out to be harmless. The banks are limited to a tax deduction of only $500,000 for each executive’s pay. But there’s no limit on how much total money is doled out to the execs – meaning they can still be paid $5 million or even $50 million a year. The banks wouldn’t get a tax break on the big sum, but – hey – they’re already getting billions of our tax dollars from the bailout, and that money can be used to maintain the extravagant paydays of those at the top.

These are not merely loopholes in the bailout scheme – they amount to blantant frauds.

Our New Metaphor for the Economic Crisis

Definitely a little dire but poignantly written description of our current economic condition...

The Long Road Ahead -- Are You Ready for the Worst the Economy Has to Offer?
By James Howard Kunstler of Kunstler.com

...let's say that we are witnessing the two stages of a tsunami. The current disappearance of wealth in the form of debts repudiated, bets welshed on, contracts cancelled, and Lehman Brothers-style sob stories played out is like the withdrawal of the sea. The poor curious little monkey-humans stand on the beach transfixed by the strangeness of the event as the water recedes and the sea floor is exposed and all kinds of exotic creatures are seen thrashing in the mud, while the skeletons of historic wrecks are exposed to view, and a great stench of organic decay wafts toward the strand. Then comes the second stage, the tidal wave itself -- which in this case will be horrific monetary inflation -- roaring back over the mud flats toward the land mass, crashing over the beach, and ripping apart all the hotels and houses and infrastructure there while it drowns the poor curious monkey-humans who were too enthralled by the weird spectacle to make for higher ground. The killer tidal wave washes away all the things they have labored to build for decades, all their poignant little effects and chattels, and the survivors are left keening amidst the wreckage as the sea once again returns to normal in its eternal cradle...

ACLU's Request for Info Re: the Deployment of the 1st Brigade

Many of you are already aware of the Army Times article, that reported an army brigade, the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 3rd Infantry Division, will now become the first army brigade to have active duty service and be assigned essentially to the United States and many of you also realize the serious implications this could have on us and the laws that are being broken by this deployment. But I was happily just made aware that the ACLU filed the Freedom of Information Act, requesting a whole variety of info from the government on the deployment. So hopefully we will have some answers soon...

Australia to Implement Mandatory Internet Censorship

AUSTRALIA will join China in implementing mandatory censoring of the internet under plans put forward by their Federal Government.

The plan was first created as a way to combat child pronography and adult content, but could be extended to include other controversial websites....

Resignation Letter

"Amidst the chaos of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, one head-honcho of the financial industry has decided to turn over a new leaf. Andrew Lahde, the now-former head of California-based hedge fund Lahde Capital Management, recently quit his job despite posting gains of 870 percent over the last year.

His resignation letter reflects his disillusionment with both the financial industry and the federal government, and contains scathing criticisms of American materialism, economic deregulation, and the philosophical fortitude (or lack thereof) of our country's leaders."-Over the Hedge


Letter: Andrew Lahde, Lahde Capital Management
Posted in the FT.com
By Andrew Lahde
October 17, 2008

Today I write not to gloat. Given the pain that nearly everyone is experiencing, that would be entirely inappropriate. Nor am I writing to make further predictions, as most of my forecasts in previous letters have unfolded or are in the process of unfolding. Instead, I am writing to say goodbye.

Recently, on the front page of Section C of the Wall Street Journal, a hedge fund manager who was also closing up shop (a $300 million fund), was quoted as saying, “What I have learned about the hedge fund business is that I hate it.” I could not agree more with that statement. I was in this game for the money. The low hanging fruit, i.e. idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale, and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking. These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government. All of this behavior supporting the Aristocracy only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America.

There are far too many people for me to sincerely thank for my success. However, I do not want to sound like a Hollywood actor accepting an award. The money was reward enough. Furthermore, the endless list of those deserving thanks know who they are.

I will no longer manage money for other people or institutions. I have enough of my own wealth to manage. Some people, who think they have arrived at a reasonable estimate of my net worth, might be surprised that I would call it quits with such a small war chest. That is fine; I am content with my rewards. Moreover, I will let others try to amass nine, ten or eleven figure net worths. Meanwhile, their lives suck. Appointments back to back, booked solid for the next three months, they lookforward to their two week vacation in January during which they will likely be glued to their Blackberries or other such devices. What is the point? They will all be forgotten in fifty years anyway. Steve Balmer, Steven Cohen, and Larry Ellison will all be forgotten. I do not understand the legacy thing. Nearly everyone will be forgotten. Give up on leaving your mark. Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life.

So this is it. With all due respect, I am dropping out. Please do not expect any type of reply to emails or voicemails within normal time frames or at all. Andy Springer and his company will be handling the dissolution of the fund. And don’t worry about my employees, they were always employed by Mr. Springer’s company and only one (who has been well-rewarded) will lose his job.

I have no interest in any deals in which anyone would like me to participate. I truly do not have a strong opinion about any market right now, other than to say that things will continue to get worse for some time, probably years. I am content sitting on the sidelines and waiting. After all, sitting and waiting is how we made money from the subprime debacle. I now have time to repair my health, which was destroyed by the stress I layered onto myself over the past two years, as well as my entire life – where I had to compete for spaces in universities and graduate schools, jobs and assets under management – with those who had all the advantages (rich parents) that I did not. May meritocracy be part of a new form of government, which needs to be established.

On the issue of the U.S. Government, I would like to make a modest proposal. First, I point out the obvious flaws, whereby legislation was repeatedly brought forth to Congress over the past eight years, which would have reigned in the predatory lending practices of now mostly defunct institutions. These institutions regularly filled the coffers of both parties in return for voting down all of this legislation designed to protect the common citizen. This is an outrage, yet no one seems to know or care about it. Since Thomas Jefferson and Adam Smith passed, I would argue that there has been a dearth of worthy philosophers in this country, at least ones focused on improving government. Capitalism worked for two hundred years, but times change, and systems become corrupt. George Soros, a man of staggering wealth, has stated that he would like to be remembered as a philosopher. My suggestion is that this great man start and sponsor a forum for great minds to come together to create a new system of government that truly represents the common man’s interest, while at the same time creating rewards great enough to attract the best and brightest minds to serve in government roles without having to rely on corruption to further their interests or lifestyles. This forum could be similar to the one used to create the operating system, Linux, which competes with Microsoft’s near monopoly. I believe there is an answer, but for now the system is clearly broken.

Lastly, while I still have an audience, I would like to bring attention to an alternative food and energy source. You won’t see it included in BP’s, “Feel good. We are working on sustainable solutions,” television commercials, nor is it mentioned in ADM’s similar commercials. But hemp has been used for at least 5,000 years for cloth and food, as well as just about everything that is produced from petroleum products. Hemp is not marijuana and vice versa. Hemp is the male plant and it grows like a weed, hence the slang term. The original American flag was made of hemp fiber and our Constitution was printed on paper made of hemp. It was used as recently as World War II by the U.S. Government, and then promptly made illegal after the war was won. At a time when rhetoric is flying about becoming more self-sufficient in terms of energy, why is it illegal to grow this plant in this country? Ah, the female. The evil female plant – marijuana. It gets you high, it makes you laugh, it does not produce a hangover. Unlike alcohol, it does not result in bar fights or wife beating. So, why is this innocuous plant illegal? Is it a gateway drug? No, that would be alcohol, which is so heavily advertised in this country. My only conclusion as to why it is illegal, is that Corporate America, which owns Congress, would rather sell you Paxil, Zoloft, Xanax and other addictive drugs, than allow you to grow a plant in your home without some of the profits going into their coffers. This policy is ludicrous. It has surely contributed to our dependency on foreign energy sources. Our policies have other countries literally laughing at our stupidity, most notably Canada, as well as several European nations (both Eastern and Western). You would not know this by paying attention to U.S. media sources though, as they tend not to elaborate on who is laughing at the United States this week. Please people, let’s stop the rhetoric and start thinking about how we can truly become self-sufficient.

With that I say goodbye and good luck.

All the best,

Andrew Lahde

Transparency

So I came across this great new website BailoutSleuth.com that is seeking to add transparency to the bailout program. They are and will be tracking the government's $700 billion rescue plan. This site will monitor the government's purchase, and eventual sale, of bad mortgages and other distressed assets. Analyzing deals and providing information about the companies and people involved in them. They will be looking at whether banks that got billions in government bailout money are using some of it to pay executive year-end bonuses and whether the banks that received taxpayer money will be using it to make loans and ease the credit crunch, like they are suppose to.

Bailoutsleuth will be keeping up with how our tax dollars are spent and the people and companies that are impacted by this program and will be keeping an eye out for favoritism, political influence or anything else that could undermine the potential returns to taxpayers.

And although the investment program is only a few weeks old, BailoutSleuth has already uncovered government and corporate shenanigans, "none of the companies that have signed on for federal bailout money have announced plans to slash salaries and bonuses, or to substantially overhaul their executive compensation schemes"...

Déjà vu

Wow!!..Deja vu..I just listened to Mario Cuomo's 1984 DNC Keynote speech (If you have sometime you really should listen to it), not only is it beautiful and inspiring, it's frighteningly similar to the political and social issues we are dealing with at the present moment.

Quote of the Week

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
- Thomas Paine

Obama Demands Hippies Put Down Bong, Actually Go Vote On Tuesday

Posted on Wonkette

This is a pretty hilarious Web Commercial from Mr. Sincere McDignity, “That One.” It makes the obvious point that if you are a dumb libtard who is somehow winning the race, you will comically start celebrating before you reach the actual finish line, and you will FAIL, and a terrible giant-bobble-head Walnuts McCain will beat you, the way the Desert Tortoise beat the Jackrabbit.

Your co-editor Jim Newell got in trouble with The Ladies over at the lady website today for casually saying he probably wouldn’t vote, because he lives in D.C., and what the hell, etc., and his pills run out on Sunday, so by Election Day he’ll probably just be crying in the tiny crack-pipe-filled back yard, hundreds of fat greasy rats just cold climbing over his head, for sport.

But he does at least have a semi-valid lazy-ass point, as Washington voters are so deep in the tank that most of them have drowned, yet they just keep voting. Ghouls, all of them.

And hell, something like a third of all voters may have already voted. Why not just get high now, and stay that way, so you’re “prepared” to deal with whatever happens, good or ill?

Because you must make sure your other loser friends and jobless relatives are sober enough to haul their ACORN-registered selves to the polls, dressed as Mickey Mouse, so they can vote for Communist Terror, forever.
And that is your Wonkette Public Service Announcement, until we get nervous and do another one in six or nine hours. It is kind of sad, to be in the tank when a Walnuts/Palin administration would provide so many laffes & gaffes. But we are willing to lose a few jokes [How about MILLIONS of jokes? -- Ed.] for the team, if it means not being burnt to death in the NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST which Palin/McCain would most surely cause.

Very cool....Dozens Of Call Center Workers Walk Off Job In Protest Rather Than Read McCain Script Attacking Obama

A Knee-Jerk Attack On Poor People

A KNEE-JERK ATTACK ON POOR PEOPLE
from Jim Hightower's Common-Sense Commentaries

Guess who caused the financial crash.

Greedhead bankers and Wall Street speculators? Nope. How about those boneheaded laissez-faire ideologues in Washington? Uh-uh. Instead – get ready for this – the culprits are poor people!

This is the latest load of bunkum being fired at us by right-wing politicos and pundits. Trying to stop Congress from regulating Wall Street’s razzle-dazzle, ponzi-style investment schemes that have wrecked the housing market, banks, jobs, and so much more – the gooberheads of the far right are pointing fingers of blame at low-income homeowners.

The particular target of this nutty, right-wing campaign is CRA, the Community Reinvestment Act. Passed 30-something years ago, this law simply requires bankers to do a better job than they had been doing of making home loans to lower-income folks. But Wall Street’s frenzied apologists are claiming that banks were bullied by the CRA into making risky loans to borrowers who couldn’t afford them.

Horsedoodle. Until the Bushites took power and deregulated Wall Street speculators so they could essentially play casino games with poor people’s mortgages, the law worked beautifully! Loans were made, repaid, and bankers made profits. So don’t blame CRA. The damage came from money-grubbing interests having no relationship to that law. In fact, 75 percent of the high-risk home loans that were made under Bush’s anything-goes regime came from unregulated mortgage outfits, not from banks covered by CRA. They were working closely with such mortgage profiteers as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, which also are not covered by CRA.

Experience shows that lending to poor people can be less risky than lending to the wealthy, including to Wall Street bankers. The idea that poor people caused Wall Street to crash is not an idea at all – it’s an ideological, knee-jerk smear.

Israel, Iran, and Iraq's Election Info

More Elections
By Joe Klein for Time.com
October 27th, 2008

For those who haven't had quite enough, thank you, of the vagaries of democracy, there are two fascinating, maybe crucial, elections coming down the pike in early 2009--in Israel and Iran. (Actually 3: the regional elections in Iraq, scheduled for late January will be pretty important, too.)

Now that Tzipi Livni has failed to form a government--those pesky ultra-orthodox parties play Chicago ward politics and her proposed bribes were insufficient--there will be elections in Israel in February or March. The current front-runner is the eternal Binyamin Netanyahu of Likud, who sets neoconservative hearts aflutter in the U.S...but who knows how this will shake out? Livni is much admired in Israel--and clean...but is she tough enough? (Does this sound familiar?) She faces competition not only from Bibi on the right but also from (Ehud) Barak on the left. If Netanyahu and Obama win, there could be some real tensions between the U.S. and Israel. If Netanyahu and McCain win--kaboom--there will be a much more aggressive, perhaps martial, posture toward Iran.

Speaking of Iran, there are intriguing reports today about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's health. He's exhausted, it is said--a condition that might have something to do with the unpopularity of his domestic policies (30% inflation) and the probability that he will face a tough reelection fight next June. Ahmadinejad is likely to be challenged by the reformers--Mohammad Khatami, who proceeded Ahmadinejad and raised some hopes for reform, but didn't have the power to do very much, may run again. And so may Ali-Akhbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, another former president--and the candidate of the business elites (but considered corrupt by the public). More to the point, Ahmadinejad may be challenged by a candidate favored by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, whose support tends to be pivotal (his minions supported Ahmadinejad in the runoff against Rafsanjani last time, but there have been signs that Khamenei may have had second thoughts). As with all things Iranian, the import of this election is murky, although it may be provide an indication of how public opinion is trending. If the Supreme Leader really pushes a preferred candidate other than Ahmadinejad, the election may be very significant, indeed.

The Iraqi elections will be closely watched as an indication of the relative strength of the Shi'ite parties. Will Malaki's Dawa Party gain strength? Is Muqtada al-Sadr still a force? And what about the Iranophilic Hakim family's fate? Since these are regional elections, they'll have only a tangential impact of the future of the Baghdad government. But they'll be a leading indicator--and, if they proceed quietly, it will be another sign that our job in Iraq is getting closer to finished.

A Reconnector to the Wild Within Us and Around Us

All Hallows Eve
By Charles Eisenstein

Once upon a time, our distant ancestors were animists who believed in the innate divinity of all things. Spirit was a property of matter, and all things possessed it: not just plants and animals but also rocks, clouds, lakes, wind, places, and every natural thing and process. I said all things possessed spirit, but that isn't quite what the original animists believed. Spirit was not something separate from matter, to be possessed or not. Matter was inherently spiritual.

As the human realm gradually separated from the natural (in perception if not in reality), we began to separate spirit from matter. The first step away was to believe all things to possess spirit. This is the belief that characterizes the pagan religions. In ancient Greek religion, for example, everything from the ocean and the sky down to the smallest shrub or stream had a divinity associated with it. The ancient pagans still lived in a fully enspirited world where everything was sacred.

As time passed and the mentality of agriculture tightened its grip, the human and natural realms separated still further and we began to believe that some things possessed spirit and others did not. Spirit became increasingly abstracted from matter, culminating in twin developments at the dawn of the modern era. On the one hand, Protestantism reduced the participation of divinity in the world to the sole figure of Jesus Christ, replacing the Catholic pantheon of saints with a single divine individual, just as the saints had replaced the even more participatory pagan panentheism. On the other hand, scientists like Galileo, Descartes, and Newton reduced Creation to a single event as well in their conception of a clockwork universe, created and wound up by God to tick on, mechanically and everlastingly, henceforward. In the equations of Newton, the ongoing participation of a divinity in naure was no longer necessary.

The late stone-age people and early agriculturalists that we call pagan recognized, perhaps unconsciously, this progressive desacralization of the world. They knew that the separateness of the human realm is an illusion, that we too are bound by the laws of nature and that it is necessary sometimes to remind ourselves of that. It is necessary sometimes to remind ourselves of the sacredness and divinity of all things. It is necessary sometimes to reconnect to the Wild. Rituals developed to meet these needs. Some cultures recognized this explicitly, such as the Yurok of the Pacific Northwest who, in the words of Joseph Epes Brown,

"believed that, in the beginning, the world was inhabited by the wo'gey, or Immortals, who knew how to live in harmony with the earth. The wo'gey departed when the humans arrived. Yet, because they knew that humans did not always follow the laws of the world, they taught them how to perform ceremonies that could restore the earth's balance." [1]

Halloween originates in the same spirit. The holiday we celebrate today has roots in the ancient Celtic holiday of Samhuinn, which, in the words of Philip Carr-Gomm, was

"a time of no-time. Celtic society, like all early societies, was highly structured and organized, everyone knew their place. But to allow that order to be psychologically comfortable, the Celts knew that there had to be a time when order and structure were abolished, when chaos could reign. And Samhuinn, was such a time. Time was abolished for the three days of this festival and people did crazy things, men dressed as women and women as men. Farmers' gates were unhinged and left in ditches, peoples' horses were moved to different fields." [2]

The agricultural mindset divides the world into two parts, the domestic and the wild, and seeks to maintain and expand the former as it conquers the latter. The domestic is good, the wild is bad. The corn is good, the weed is bad. The sheep is good, the wolf is bad. The orderly is good, the chaotic is bad. But the pagan farmer recognizes that this division is not the ultimate reality, and seeks to maintain a healthy connection to the underlying panentheistic truth, lest she forget that she too is governed by nature's laws. For she knows that to forget this spells doom -- the very doom we are facing today as we seek to maintain a system in flagrant violation of that primary natural law of cyclicity: that one being's waste must be another being's food.

The Samhuinn that Carr-Gomm describes is precisely such a reconnection. Here the order of the separate human realm was thrust aside. The inner Wild expressed itself as an abandonment of social structures, while the outer Wild was allowed to usurp the ordering of the land into domesticity. Animals were let loose and gates were ripped down. This was a time when all the wild spirits once again roamed free, wreaking mischief on the human realm.

The ancient farmer still believed in these wild spirits and knew they had to be propitiated. Can you see how the ceremonial offerings to the spirits became the goodies we offer trick-or-treaters today? These offerings were once an affirmation of our debt to the wildness of Nature, all-providing, as well as a token reminder that Nature's wild spirits must be respected lest they wreak havoc. How did these offerings devolve into mere candy?

Under the Catholic Church, divinity retreated from "all things and processes," but still resided in a wide pantheon of saints and holy objects that more or less corresponded to the original nature spirits. Samhuinn became All Saints Day or All Hallows Day, but people still believed in a colorful bestiary of spirits and magical beings. The Protestant Reformation removed divinity still further from the world, as science and the Machine completed the desacralization of nature. Ghosts and goblins, fairies and vampires, became mere children's toys, nothing adults took seriously. Halloween became a game arranged for children.

Why do the spirits we associate with Halloween have the reputation of being evil? The Church's effort to vilify pagan religion is only part of the explanation. In fact, the very concept of evil only arose with agriculture's division of the world. Before then there was no such thing as an evil spirit. Each being enacted its role to perfection in the harmonious operation of a greater whole. But when a separate human realm grew that needed to be maintained, with great effort, against natural forces that seek to reduce a field to weeds and a house to ruin, then the Wild indeed became a foe: a source of trouble, mischief, and even death. Tempting it is, then, to see Nature as an enemy to be dominated and conquered. The pagans, understanding the disaster inherent in such an attempt, therefore enacted rituals and festivals to keep their own connection to the Wild alive.

What began with agriculture accelerated with the ascendency of the Machine. From the perspective of the Machine, wildness is evil. Chaos, unpredictability, individual variation are at odds with the values of the Machine: uniformity, regularity, standardization. Modern religion, as servant to the Machine, abets its values by associating the divine representatives of nature's wildness, nature's infinity, nature's superiority to man, with evil. Saturn, the Devil with his horns and ram's foot, and numerous other mythic figures representing evil started out as deities from matriarchal nature cults, and became symbols of evil as nature became man's foe.

Halloween was not the only festival that attempted to maintain a connection to the Wild. Christmas and May Day were two other times when the Lord or Lady of Misrule took over and presided over the festivities. Christmas was very merry indeed: common surnames like "Prince," "Lord" or "King" are traces of the illegitimate paternity of children conceived in the merry Yuletide revels. On May Day, various pagan deities were fit onto the personas of characters from the Robin Hood tale. Madness reigned: "mad-merry marriages 'under the greenwood tree', when the dancers from the Green went off, hand in hand, into the greenwood and built themselves little love-bowers and listened hopefully for the merry nightingale."[3] Surnames like Johnson, Jackson, Robinson, Dobson, Hudson, Hobson, and so on remain with us as evidence of these revels, during which the usual social mores and civilized rules of conduct were suspended. During these times, the figures representing the newer patriarchal gods, representing order and control, were ritually overthrown, and the earlier matriarchal gods and goddesses took over.

Although patriarchy was well-established by their time, the ancient pagans understood that the shadow side, the uncivilized, out-of-control side of the human being, must not be completely suppressed. A society in which order over-dominates cannot last; nor can a farm that ignores ecological principles. Some wildness has to be let in, some chaos. When we lose this balance, then sooner or later Nature will provide a correction. The stricter the repression of the wild, the more violent that correction. When the wild breaks out today it can be violent indeed, whether in its human or environmental aspect, yet we respond by tightening its repression even more. More curfews, longer sentences, school lockdowns; higher levees, more pesticides, higher fences.

From this perspective, Halloween begins to look like a mere imitation of a holiday. Every vestige of wildness has been excised from it. No longer an interlude of chaos to reconnect us to the reality beneath our civilized forms and structures, Halloween has been made safe and orderly in every respect. No longer a "time of no-time," today even trick-or-treat takes place between the official hours of six and eight. In my own lifetime I have seen the last stage of this transformation. When I was a child, parental supervision of trick-or-treating was unheard of. We left home right after dinner, or even before, returning and going out again until we grew too tired to continue. Today I see children as old as ten or twelve walking up to each house as their parents wait for them at the end of the driveway or follow them around in the car. Needless to say, the pranks and vandalism of Mischief Night are rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

Halloween, All-Hallows Eve, a celebration of the holiness of all, has become yet another occasion for orderly consumption and profit. Like other holidays, it has become almost entirely a purchased celebration. The homemade costumes of my childhood have given way to bought ones, often of television and movie characters. The same is true of yard decorations: pumpkins, bales of hay, spooky dolls. Homemade treats are viewed with suspicion; only store-bought candy is acceptable.

I am not telling you pagans and animists out there to keep your children inside on Halloween night. I want you to know, though, that you are participating in a sham. The pagan roots of the holiday don't validate its present incarnation. They show us instead what has been lost. Lost to what? To the insatiable world-devouring machine, driven by usury, that cannot and will not stop until it has consumed every last vestige of natural, cultural, and spiritual wealth. Forests and seas, customs and traditions, stories and songs, communities and cultures -- all are grist for the machine that takes in beauty and spits out money.

Nothing can save or reform that machine, but as its furnaces consume the last bits of our heritage capital, it begins to sputter and stall. You can hear it choking already if you listen. Soon, from amidst the cold, dead hulk of its wreckage, a new culture will grow. Its seedlings, too, are visible already to those who care to look. They are the recovery of our lost connections. Through them, our animistic and pagan connections to a fully enspirited world will blossom into a future where control-driven technology retreats to its rightful place as one of many modes of creativity. In that future, our spirituality will, like that of the Samhuinn celebrants, function as a frequent reconnector to the Wild within us and around us that is the true source of all wealth.

In that spirit, let us not attempt to redeem today's commercial parody of a holiday that we call Halloween. Let it sputter on toward its final demise as we create something new alongside it. Something that truly invokes the deep-buried, paved-over Wild within us and around us. Something to remind us that the structures we have created are but temporary artifices, castles of sand aside an ocean of being. Better not lose ourselves in attachment. All will be swept away one day. As in the ancient traditions, death is an appropriate theme for the new Halloween. Death. The other side. The spirit world. The shadow. The unseen. The scary. The unknown. All that the temporary structures we have created exclude. We need occasions to remind ourselves that these structures are not the whole of reality, and indeed that the part they exclude is infinitely the greater. Whether it is inspired by the ancient traditions or something entirely new, let us find a way to go Wild this All-Hallow's Eve.

The Pickens Plan

I'm sure most of you have already heard of the Pickens Plan and his New Energy Army (if not you can read about it here and sign his petition he's sending to Congress). Below is a new 60 Minutes interview with Boone, which I think does a good job in describing the plan and details of Boone's past.


Watch CBS Videos Online

Basic Survival Gear List

I came across this excellent Basic Survival Gear List on Survivalist Blog (with links to purchase items) that I thought would be important to post here. I know what I'm getting friends and family as gifts this year...

We Really Are What We Drink

New scientific evidence concludes temperature including drink temperature has a lot to do with how we view others and how our behavior is affected toward them. "One person's perceptions of another's "warmth" is a powerful determining factor in social relationships...The physical sensation of a warm cup of tea encourages emotional warmth, while a chilly drink in hand serves as a brake on rash decisions — those are the practical lesson being drawn from recent research...Physical warmth can make us see others as warmer people, but also cause us to be warmer — more generous and trusting — as well."

So I think we need to come up with a bevy of new warm liquor drinks...because all these cold beers and margaritas have completely opposite results for what some people are looking for.

Science Says We Really Are What We Drink
By Hilary Hylton for Time

The Price of Oil

One of the key indicators for the economy is the price of oil...If our economy and the economies of other leading crude consumers continue to deteriorate, industries will use less oil.

So when I saw this posted on Urban Survival this morning, all I felt was dread...

Just like I expected, the OPEC'ers have cut production by 1.5 million barrels a day in order to hold up global consumers so they can pay for all that opulence built on sand with borrowed money.

If you're wondering why oil is trading below $65 a barrel anyway, it's because this is how depressions begin, my friend. Demand collapses, price collapses; repeat as often as necessary until you're in a soup line.

If I remember correctly it's only been three months since oil was being traded at it's historic high of around $147 in July.

Obama the Philosopher

Is the Conservatives' philosophy of possessive individualism finally on a downturn? Will Obama be able to enlighten and lead the masses towards a real social change? Yes, I believe so...With the ears and hearts of the people, Obama has the opportunity to install real ideas of social responsibility.

Obama the Philosopher
By Linda Hirshman for The Nation
October 22, 2008

Barack Obama is finally telling Americans why enacting his economic programs is the right thing to do. Not just prudent, not just efficient, but right. For a long time in this country, talk about what's right has been the monopoly of the right...After thirty years of conservative, "greed is good" political philosophy, Obama faces the daunting task of explaining to Americans why they should once again care for one another....

...For an agonizingly long time, it looked as if Obama was not going to produce a new way of thinking. In the first debate with John McCain, Obama stuck to his centrist script of trying to sound like nothing more than a kinder, gentler tax-cutting conservative, assuring his listeners that "95 percent of you will get a tax cut." It looked as if the economic debate was going to focus at most on whether federal taxing and spending would stimulate the economy, not whether it would make a more just society.

But as the magnitude of the conservative failure has become apparent to all but the densest Americans, Obama the philosopher emerged, with an intriguing combination of new New Deal and old New Deal thinking. The new idea is that people who are now successful should care for the ones left behind, because they were once the left-behind themselves.

Obama floated this idea for the first time in the exchange with the now-infamous Joe the Plumber. Why should he pay taxes just as he became successful? Joe asked. When Obama suggested the tax increase, at $900, was fairly small, Joe was having none of it: "I mean, I've worked hard. I'm a plumber. I work ten to twelve hours a day and I'm buying this company and I'm going to continue working that way. I'm getting taxed more and more while fulfilling the American dream."

Franklin Roosevelt had one answer for people like Joe when he made the speech that announced the New Deal: "We know that individual liberty and individual happiness mean nothing unless both are ordered in the sense that one man's meat is not another man's poison." The truth is that Joe will have to contribute $900 so "another man" will not be poisoned (or starve, as FDR put it a little earlier). But Obama is reluctant to say that we are all in the American enterprise together. That would be socialism, right? Instead, he made a deft move, telling Joe that he should consider his extra taxes like a transfer not to some stranger, but to his own, former, less successful self: "Over the last fifteen years, when you weren't making $250,000, you would have been given a tax cut from me, so you'd actually have more money, which means you would have saved more, which means you would have gotten to the point where you could build your small business quicker than under the current tax code.... Put yourself back ten years ago."

This is a brilliant strategy because it takes a middle ground between asking people to act from pure altruism toward others--as any redistributive scheme must ultimately do--and the purely selfish individualism that fueled the conservative movement. While former selves are not exactly us, they are linked to us through the chain of common memories that makes our life story. Only presently rich Joe is the bearer of the memory of what it was like to be poor, striving Joe. More than anyone else on earth, only Joe, the presently rich plumber, owns the memory of what it was like to be Joe, the poor plumber of the past. So, in the best of worlds Obama's philosophy envisions, Joe should be sympathetic to helping people just like his former self. This is not news to philosophers, since John Locke described our relationship to our prior selves centuries ago. But it's a little surprising to hear it on the rope line!....

...To his credit, Obama is also starting to put his voice behind the revival of traditional liberal care for others. Here, too, he has incorporated some of the best insights of post-New Deal philosophy: that some of everyone's success is not the result of virtue but of luck. People are born talented, they find themselves in the right place at the right time, and so forth. In 1971, long after the New Deal, iconic liberal philosopher John Rawls invoked this insight in his seminal tome, A Theory of Justice, to argue that a person's talents do not support a moral claim for their reward. Talking to Joe, Obama put it more simply: "folks like me...have worked hard, but frankly also been lucky."

Putting the call for altruism in personal terms is also useful, in this era of personal politics; billionaire investor Warren Buffett, the sage of Omaha, started the process when he found out his secretary was paying as much taxes as he was, and Obama has picked up the approach, invoking Buffett's willingness to pay more and putting himself on the line. Obama's willingness to sacrifice a few marginal dollars was particularly appealing when he offered it in the last debate after John McCain, one of the richest men in the Senate, said that he did not want to pay more taxes himself...

...In his analysis of the debate, Time's Joe Klein suggested that the pundits fully expected the ideological conservative magic to work again, and that is why they initially scored John McCain on the debate so much higher than the polled public did. But polls ultimately showed that the debate watchers weren't remotely interested in the philosophy of possessive individualism this time around. By massive margins, debate-watchers handed the victory to Barack Obama, who said he wouldn't mind paying a little more. And with that payment he will buy much more than an electoral victory. He will be laying the groundwork for real political change.

The End of America

Naomi Wolf's new documentary film The End of America has finally been released (this is a brand spankin' new film and includes yours truly in the audience third row in the middle). Please take this opportunity to watch this powerful documentary about the current state of our democracy, how it's being threatened, and the steps the Bush administration has taken since 2001 to undermine our liberties and our rights as Americans. It's 75 mins long with a few interspersed ads. Also a brief warning on the film, I found there to be some very chilling and upsetting footage but even though it maybe upsetting this is necessary to watch to understand the importance of what is happening to the U.S..

America’s Cops Prepare For Race War

Police Prepare for Unrest
Alexander Bolton from The Hill
10/21/08

Police departments in cities across the country are beefing up their ranks for Election Day, preparing for possible civil unrest and riots after the historic presidential contest.

Public safety officials said in interviews with The Hill that the election, which will end with either the nation’s first black president or its first female vice president, demanded a stronger police presence.

Some worry that if Barack Obama loses and there is suspicion of foul play in the election, violence could ensue in cities with large black populations. Others based the need for enhanced patrols on past riots in urban areas (following professional sports events) and also on Internet rumors.

Democratic strategists and advocates for black voters say they understand officers wanting to keep the peace, but caution that excessive police presence could intimidate voters.

Sen. Obama (Ill.), the Democratic nominee for president, has seen his lead over rival Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) grow in recent weeks, prompting speculation that there could be a violent backlash if he loses unexpectedly....

Survivalism Begins to Go Mainstream

So one of my favorite survivalist blogs was mentioned on MSNBC.com yesterday and whenever the mainstream media takes an interest in Survivalism I think it should be acknowledged. Because Survivalism has a bad rap as being just for the paranoid and End-of-Timers but not anymore “now it’s the entire political spectrum — far right, far left and everything in between,” said Rawles. With the release of the article yesterday the blog got 90,000 unique visits in one day....Pretty incredible.

In hard times, some flirt with survivalism--Economic angst has Americans stockpiling 'beans, bullets and Band-Aids’

'the Real America'

The Daily Show's correspondent Jason Jones gives us the low down on Wasilla, Alaska and 'the Real Amercia'

Quote of the Week

"Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response. Indifference is not a beginning; it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees -- not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. And in denying their humanity, we betray our own."
-Elie Wiesel
The Perils of Indifference
Delivered April 12,1999 Washington, D.C.

Zeitgeist: Addendum

Most everyone knows the scene from the Matrix where Neo is given the choice of taking the red pill or the blue pill....Well I'm giving you that choice right now, before you continue with this post and watch this film. If you want to step out of the box of your reality and see a greater scheme and realization than proceed. I will also preface this post by saying I don't completely agree with all the ideas put forward in the film, especially some of the actions they want to take for social transformation, but overall it is necessary for greater understanding to listen to new stimulating and though-provoking views and ideas.


Zeitgeist: Addendum, is the sequel to Zeitgeist: The Movie...The Addendum explores the corruption of our globalized monetary system, and considers how we might effect a transition from a society of scarcity and profiteering, to one of sustainability and abundance. The Addendum begins by first shocking you and then brings you to a state, desperate for change. I've outlined the sections from the film that I believe contain the most vital info. (You may want to skip my outline and delve straight into the film, if so it is the video embedded at the bottom of the post)

Globalization and Economic Slavery:
Discusses where our money comes from and how inflation is really just a hidden tax..."we are just food for the debt machine"

Example...
To have the purchasing power of a $1.00 from 1913
you need $21.60 in the year 2007
that's a 96% devaluation in 94 years

The U.S. is just a Clandestine Empire with a three step process to domination and globalization...
Step one: economic hit men (make new countries indebted to you forever)
Step two: jackals (assassinate leaders that don't hand over control)
Step three: the last step in achieving control is to use the military and war to overthrow the government

This clip is used in the Addendum, but I felt it was necessary to watch again separately to really fully understand the ramifications brought about by globalization...
Network - "There is no democracy"


Future Technologies and a Resource Based Society:
If we weren't on a monetary based society we could be freed up to pursue ideas for the greater good and personal growth.

The Renunciation of Religion and the Acceptance of an Emergent Universe & Symbiotic Relationship:
Religion exists as a barrier to personal and social growth and perpetuates a closed world view.

The encompassing message from the film can be summed up from this quote..."Happiness is how well we relate to everything around us...The whole world is a community and we must take care of each other. And not just a community of human beings but a community of plants and animals...And joy comes from that connectedness".

Zeitgeist: Addendum

More Fake Patriotism

The call for a witch hunt.....Congresswoman Michele Bachmann on Hardball suggests to Chris Matthews (about 6:30 into the video) that the media should perform an investigative report on all members of Congress to determine who among them are “pro-America” and “anti-America.”



10/21/08 Update-
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann released this statement on Politico "Despite the way the blogs and the Democratic Party are spinning it, I never called all liberals anti-American, I never questioned Barack Obama’s patriotism, and I never asked for some House Un-American Activities Committee witch hunt into my colleagues in Congress."

Um excuse me, yes, you did Congresswoman...as by evidenced in the posted video above

Obama at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Dinner 10/16/08

He's too awesome...

Dr. Dean Ornish: Healing and Other Natural Wonders

Just watched this latest posted Ted Talk

Dr. Dean Ornish: Healing and other natural wonders
He talks about simple, low-tech, and low-cost ways to take advantage of the body's natural desire to heal itself. From heart disease, cancer, and diabetes...these illnesses can be slowed or completely reversed by following his simple method of diet.

Frightening Chart...
CDC's U.S. Obesity Trends 1985–2007

"Fringe People"

Saw this posted in Time Magazine today.....more echoes of a Police State, this time it's coming from the State and not the Federal government. When are Americans going to wake up....When they're on the list?

When the State Police Fingers Terrorists
By Robert Baer

"After greatest hits like Abu Ghraib and domestic eavesdropping, it takes a particularly brazen abuse of power to shock most Americans weary from eight years of the Bush Administration's war on terror. Even the recent revelation that the National Security Agency has been listening to the private calls of our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq probably didn't surprise too many jaded citizens. But the news that Maryland State Police had entered the names and personal information of 53 peaceful left-wing activists and protesters into state and federal databases as terrorists, well that may take the cake. None of them had done or thought anything more violent than raising a placard against the war in Iraq and the death penalty. You have to wonder how many more lists like Maryland's are out there.

The surveillance of the activists that led to their inclusion in the databases took place in 2005 and 2006. "I don't believe the First Amendment is any guarantee to those who wish to disrupt the government," Thomas Hutchins, the former Maryland state police superintendent who authorized the monitoring program of the activists, told a state legislative hearing earlier this month. The names were entered into the Maryland state database, as well as a federal Washington-Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area database, and some of them may have been shared with the National Security Agency — though current state police officials claim none were entered into the official federal terrorist watch list. All of the victims are being sent letters notifying them of their inclusion in the database, and their information will soon be purged.

In defending the use of the program, Hutchins described its targets as "fringe people." Other than describing some of my family, I hadn't realized fringe was a criminal activity. But more to the point, What does Maryland know about terrorism? Does the Baltimore grocer from Pakistan's North Waziristan merit ending up on Maryland's terrorist list because he calls home every weekend?

The other day I got a call from a friend in Europe. He was both frantic and furious. He had just been turned back at New York's JFK airport and sent home on the first flight. He missed his son's wedding — the son is an American citizen. The FBI at JFK was courteous but would only tell him he was on a terrorist list. Nothing the man could say helped. Was he on Maryland's list, now an undesirable alien and permanently excluded from the United States? Probably not, but in this era of secret evidence, who knows.

When you start to think about the vast digital databases that shadow our lives, the general incomprehension about the Middle East, and the readiness to blacklist people — guilt by association — you start to suspect George Orwell was right. And, incidentally, it doesn't have to be this way. Before 9/11, the FBI and CIA sifted through tens of thousands of terrorist leads every day. Ninety nine point nine per cent turn out to be bogus. The names never made it onto national master list and stayed in the raw files where they belonged. We missed 9/11, but not because the two San Diego hijackers were not on a list. We missed it because so many names float through Washington that their significance was missed.

Abusing the system like Maryland has is not going to improve our national security — it is only going to irritate Americans who will rebel against it. Terrorism lists should be compiled by the FBI, and reviewed by an Congressionally-mandated, independent body to purge the names that shouldn't be on it. The United States does not do well as a police state, but it does even worse when local and state authorities get to decide who the enemies of this state are."

Robert Baer, a former CIA field officer assigned to the Middle East, is TIME.com's intelligence columnist and the author of See No Evil and, most recently, The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower

Since when did women's 'health' become extreme?

By Cecile Richards for The Huffington Post

"I about fell out of my chair when I heard John McCain say this during the presidential debate last night:

"Just again, the example of the eloquence of Sen. Obama. His 'health for the mother'. You know, that's been stretched by the pro-abortion movement in America to mean almost anything. That's the extreme pro-abortion position, quote, 'health'."

Since when did women's health become extreme?



What's really extreme here is that John McCain doesn't understand that women's health matters.

What John McCain said last night, in front of millions of viewers, was belittling to women. He not only mocked Barack Obama for supporting women's health, he mocked women across the country. The debate last night was just the most vivid example of what we've known all along: John McCain is out of touch on women's health.

The simple fact is that we need a president who wants to protect and promote women's health, not ridicule it. If John McCain doesn't understand that, then he's not prepared to govern this country.

Remember, this is not the only example where John McCain doesn't get it when it comes to women's health.

Just a couple months back, McCain had the deer-in-the-headlights look, and couldn't answer whether he thought it was fair that insurance companies that cover Viagra should also cover birth control.

And, remember the time when McCain was asked whether he thought contraceptives helped stopped the spread of HIV? McCain's response, "You've stumped me."

And there's more. Let's count the ways that John McCain is out of touch on women's health and women's rights

*He's voted 125 times against women's health.
*He wants to overturn Roe v. Wade.
*He opposes funding to prevent unintended and teen pregnancies.
*He opposes requiring health care plans to cover birth control.
*He opposes equal pay legislation, saying it wouldn't do "anything to help the rights of women."
*He's proposed a health care plan that will be worse for women.

Barack Obama, on the other hand, gets it. Obama talked about commonsense proposals to prevent unintended pregnancy. He talked about a woman, along with her family and her doctor, deciding what is best for her health care.

The simple fact is that Barack Obama is a passionate advocate for women's rights, and has a long and consistent record of standing up for women's health care. As president, he will improve access to quality health care for women, support and protect a woman's right to choose, support comprehensive sex education to keep our young people healthy and safe, and invest in prevention programs, including family planning services and breast cancer screenings.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Women voting for John McCain is like chickens voting for Col. Sanders."

Quote of the Week

"to be forewarned is to be forearmed"

Naomi Wolf - Give Me Liberty

My favorite author and patriot Naomi Wolf is back...with an even more urgent message to citizens (you should remember her from the talk 'End of America', if you don't, find it on youtube and watch!). But below is a link to a recent interview with her re: recent events in our country and economy.



Thousands of Troops Are Deployed on U.S. Streets Ready to Carry Out "Crowd Control"
By Naomi Wolf

08/10/08 "AlterNet" -- Background: the First Brigade of the Third Infantry Division, three to four thousand soldiers, has been deployed in the United States as of October 1. Their stated mission is the form of crowd control they practiced in Iraq, subduing "unruly individuals," and the management of a national emergency. I am in Seattle and heard from the brother of one of the soldiers that they are engaged in exercises now. Amy Goodman reported that an Army spokesperson confirmed that they will have access to lethal and non lethal crowd control technologies and tanks.

George Bush struck down Posse Comitatus, thus making it legal for military to patrol the U.S. He has also legally established that in the "War on Terror," the U.S. is at war around the globe and thus the whole world is a battlefield. Thus the U.S. is also a battlefield.

He also led change to the 1807 Insurrection Act to give him far broader powers in the event of a loosely defined "insurrection" or many other "conditions" he has the power to identify. The Constitution allows the suspension of habeas corpus -- habeas corpus prevents us from being seized by the state and held without trial -- in the event of an "insurrection." With his own army force now, his power to call a group of protesters or angry voters "insurgents" staging an "insurrection" is strengthened.

U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman of California said to Congress, captured on C-Span and viewable on YouTube, that individual members of the House were threatened with martial law within a week if they did not pass the bailout bill:

"The only way they can pass this bill is by creating and sustaining a panic atmosphere. … Many of us were told in private conversations that if we voted against this bill on Monday that the sky would fall, the market would drop two or three thousand points the first day and a couple of thousand on the second day, and a few members were even told that there would be martial law in America if we voted no."

If this is true and Rep. Sherman is not delusional, I ask you to consider that if they are willing to threaten martial law now, it is foolish to assume they will never use that threat again. It is also foolish to trust in an orderly election process to resolve this threat. And why deploy the First Brigade? One thing the deployment accomplishes is to put teeth into such a threat.

I interviewed Vietnam veteran, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and patriot David Antoon for clarification:

"If the President directed the First Brigade to arrest Congress, what could stop him?"

"Nothing. Their only recourse is to cut off funding. The Congress would be at the mercy of military leaders to go to them and ask them not to obey illegal orders."

"But these orders are now legal?'"

"Correct."

"If the President directs the First Brigade to arrest a bunch of voters, what would stop him?"

"Nothing. It would end up in courts but the action would have been taken."

"If the President directs the First Brigade to kill civilians, what would stop him?"

"Nothing."

"What would prevent him from sending the First Brigade to arrest the editor of the Washington Post?"

"Nothing. He could do what he did in Iraq -- send a tank down a street in Washington and fire a shell into the Washington Post as they did into Al Jazeera, and claim they were firing at something else."

"What happens to members of the First Brigade who refuse to take up arms against U.S. citizens?"

"They'd probably be treated as deserters as in Iraq: arrested, detained and facing five years in prison. In Iraq a study by Ann Wright shows that deserters -- reservists who refused to go back to Iraq -- got longer sentences than war criminals."

"Does Congress have any military of their own?"

"No. Congress has no direct control of any military units. The Governors have the National Guard but they report to the President in an emergency that he declares."

"Who can arrest the President?"

"The Attorney General can arrest the President after he leaves or after impeachment."

[Note: Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi has asserted it is possible for District Attorneys around the country to charge President Bush with murder if they represent districts where one or more military members who have been killed in Iraq formerly resided.]

"Given the danger do you advocate impeachment?"

"Yes. President Bush struck down Posse Comitatus -- which has prevented, with a penalty of two years in prison, U.S. leaders since after the Civil War from sending military forces into our streets -- with a 'signing statement.' He should be impeached immediately in a bipartisan process to prevent the use of military forces and mercenary forces against U.S. citizens"

"Should Americans call on senior leaders in the Military to break publicly with this action and call on their own men and women to disobey these orders?"

"Every senior military officer's loyalty should ultimately be to the Constitution. Every officer should publicly break with any illegal order, even from the President."

"But if these are now legal. If they say, 'Don't obey the Commander in Chief,' what happens to the military?"

"Perhaps they would be arrested and prosecuted as those who refuse to participate in the current illegal war. That's what would be considered a coup."

"But it's a coup already."

"Yes."

Are your parents thinking about voting for McCain? It's time to have 'The Talk'

http://www.mccainfreewhitehouse.org/having-the-talk.html




Having the Talk------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OK. So you've decided to talk to your parents about the consequences of John McCain. Now, how do you do it?

Find the right time. Pick a moment when your parents aren't in a rush and don't have any friends over. It's best to have 'The Talk' in person, but phone can also work if you're far away.
Speak from your heart. It may be awkward to discuss unpleasant issues like John McCain with your parents. But doing so shows you care. Explain why you think John McCain is dangerous to our future, and then lay out the fun, healthy alternative: Barack Obama. Tell them, in your own words, why you are supporting Barack Obama. They'll listen.

Be a good listener yourself. Even though your parents are potentially engaging in very risky behavior, it's important to keep the conversation substantive and upbeat. Show them you understand the pressures they feel, then calmly give them the facts. Shouting matches don't convince people. But steady pressure does.

...and then keep having it. For adults, John McCain's so-called maverick image is intoxicating and addictive. It may take a few weeks to wean them off of it. But as their withdrawal stabilizes, your parents will see a world they'd given up on years ago—a world with an intelligent, visionary leader.

What To Say--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As we said, speaking from your heart about why you're supporting Obama is the best way to start. But what about your parents' concerns? Here are the top three issues—and how to talk about 'em:

They say: Obama will raise my taxes.
You say: Actually, that's probably not true. According to the nonpartisan Center for Something Something, 95% of American families, Obama's plan lowers taxes. It's true, he pays for that by raising taxes on the very rich—but bottom line, our family will pay less under Obama than under Bush—and our tax money will go toward rebuilding the economy here, not more wars. (Even if you're very rich, Obama has said that you'll pay roughly what you did throughout the 1990s and less than you would have under Ronald Reagan.) Check out: http://taxcut.barackobama.com/

They say: Obama just isn't ready to be president.
You say: It's true, he doesn't have much Washington experience. But I don't think more Washington experience is what we need right now. And on issue after issue—from Iraq to the financial crisis—Obama's judgment has been right, and McCain's judgment has been questionable. Just think about how McCain has run his campaign: it's reckless and erratic. I don't think we can risk another president like that for another four years.

They say: Obama's a Muslim/terrorist/Muslim terrorist.
You say: Moooooommmmm (or perhaps: Daaadddd). That rumor has been debunked by countless major newspaper outlets and nonpartisan observers. Barack Obama is a Christian. He's an American. If you want to vote for McCain because you think his policies are better, fine. But please, please, please don't vote for him because you think Obama's a Muslim. Check out this video about Obama and his family: http://my.barackobama.com/4days

For more resources on talking to your parents, check out this helpful page on the Obama site: http://www.barackobama.com/thetalk/

Wait, What's Up With ACORN?

Posted on Gawker today....everything you need to know about ACORN with a hint of sarcasm

http://gawker.com/5063157/wait-whats-up-with-acorn

"So Matt Drudge, who controls your news with an iron opera glove, is leading today with the news that ACORN registered Mickey Mouse to vote. Ha ha ha. Honestly, what the hell's the deal with the ACORN story and why are right-wingers already clinging to it like guns and religion? Sigh. We'll try to explain.

What is ACORN??

An evil group that exists to organize poor people into a violent militia and overthrow the government via "voting." Or basically a lobbying group for low- and middle-income families, either one.

Oh no, lobbyists!

Right? ACORN is in some respects a lobbying group like, say, the oil or pharmaceutical lobbies. Except they represent poor people instead of profitable corporations so they're a much less successful lobbying group.

What do they do?

They started as a radical group dedicated to getting welfare recipients and underemployed non-welfare recipients together to demand socialist things like free lunches for kids and emergency room care. Now they lobby Democrats for terrorist things like raising the minimum wage and forcing the government to subsidize affordable housing. Also they organize voter registration drives.

But what about all these crimes they're committing??

ACORN pays local losers in Florida $8 an hour to gather 20 voter registrations a day. So some of these losers are lazy, like all employees, and just make up the registrations. ACORN does try to find these made-up registrations and fire the employees who submit them, but, you know, sometimes they miss a couple. Also the law seems to say that ACORN has to submit all the registrations they gather no matter what, and even though the law is a little bit vague, they're still trying to follow it.

Why do Republicans need to attack and delegitimize a damn voter registration drive??

Because a certain amount of passive voter suppression is built in to the Republican campaign strategy. If all the disenfranchised and disenchanted voters were organized and registered and informed, we'd probably be a crazy socialist 10-party country like Italy or something. The GOP engages in active voter suppression—voter ID laws and legal challenges—and the more passive kind built into the democratic process, like engendering cynicism about the democratic process.

Obviously convincing the guys who disagree with you to not vote is part of any party's campaign strategy, but the GOP's by necessity targets poor people and minorities, and the vast history of suppressing the votes of poor people and minorities is way grosser than any history of disenfranchising white protestants. To us! Maybe you have some totally oppressed landed gentry in your family tree so you may feel differently.

Quite honestly the very heart of the utter bullshitness of this anti-ACORN campaign can be found in one incredibly telling quote from a spokesman for the RNC: "Cairncross accused ACORN of engaging in a 'systematic effort to undermine the election process' through its voter-registration drives." Do you see the problem with that statement?

And basically there is a CERTAIN CLASS of Republican voter that does not think that the poors, the Blacks, the homelesses, and so on honestly really deserve the same power to choose our rulers as a guy who's worked his whole life to get where he is. The politics of resentment are the last, most powerful weapon the McCain campaign has left this cycle. The details of the charges don't matter, actual proof of fraud doesn't matter, any evidence whatsoever of voter fraud being a real problem with a measurable effect on elections certainly doesn't matter, because the "fraud" is just that, you know, no-good hoodlum welfare recipients are being handed voter registration forms, and one type of person sees that as the point of democracy and the other type sees it as an utter perversion of democracy.

Didn't McCain used to totally be in the tank for ACORN?

Well Republicans have been bitching about ACORN and voter fraud for years now, but McCain definitely didn't used to be one of those Republicans. In 2006 McCain did give a keynote address, about immigration rights, at a rally co-sponsored by ACORN.

Can you maybe use a little more false equivalence to explain this in a way I understand?

Sure. ACORN's voter registration drives are to conservatives what Diebold voting machines are the liberals. The possibility of abuse is present and clear, but no one's yet convincingly proved that any abuse has occurred.

OK so what's up with everyone suddenly talking about ACORN?

As we said, nuttier conservatives have been on the ACORN-bashing bandwagon for years now. That it's finally trickled up to Drudge and Fox means they're scared they're losing the election and they need to preemptively delegitimize Obama.

What are my talking points for when crazy relatives argue that ACORN stole the election?

What we're dealing with so far is minor voter registration fraud. The questionable registrations number in the double digits in most states, and most of them have been flagged and caught by either ACORN themselves or election officials. Furthermore in many places the false registrations are required by law to be submitted anyway, so that ACORN isn't guilty of, say, tossing out the forms of Republicans they sign up. They do try to flag the fake ones as fake, but regardless, the fake ones are still being caught. Also: voter registration fraud does not coherently lead to voter fraud, because if you register one man 75 times, how will he vote 75 times, exactly?

More importantly, the election can't be stolen if it hasn't happened yet, and voter registration fraud does not explain in any way a double digit lead for a candidate in national tracking polls. Like, wtf, how are you making this argument, are you slow? ACORN registering Mickey Mouse is why Barack Obama is up 12 in Pennsylvania? Ok, sure, whatever you say."

"Hey Sarah Palin" song

Forewarning: this is a catchy tune...don't be surprised if you're singing it later :)

Tree Huts

"To some, they may evoke childhood memories of hiding out in treehouses; to others, they may suggest flimsy shelters built by the homeless." -Tadashi Kawamata

http://madsqhuts.wordpress.com/about/

"For nearly three decades, the career of Japanese-born artist Tadashi Kawamata has been, in a word, transformative. His public installations, also known as “displacements,” transform the spaces they occupy, as whole environments are turned inside-out. Under Kawamata’s direction, complex and chaotic architectural growths of raw lumber, found objects and construction scraps bloom around existing aspects of the urban landscape. Playing upon the dialectic of construction and destruction that characterizes the life cycle of public space, Kawamata’s artistic practice is finely attuned to a site’s history, use, and physical characteristics. His building style is organic and improvisational, with little predetermined. Beginning with his acclaimed installation at the 1982 Venice Biennale, Kawamata has developed a site-specific, thoroughly engaged and unique synthesis of fine art, architecture, and sociological experiment. The result has been transformative—not only of countless public environments, but of the very concept of contemporary public art.

Tree huts in particular are an emerging focus of Kawamata’s work; a crystallization of Kawamata’s interest in the architecture of shelter and of the insertion of private objects into public spaces as a method of renegotiating the meaning of both. Tadashi Kawamata: Tree Huts will mark the artist’s first exploration of this theme on a North American site following tree hut exhibitions at Art Basel 2007, in Trondheim, Norway, as part of the Generator 2007 program and at Galerie Kamel Mennour in Paris, 2008. In keeping with Kawamata’s emphasis on a unique creative process, the artist-in-residency program will invite visitors to witness, explore and interpret the evolution of the first Mad. Sq. Art project to be entirely fabricated in situ, and Kawamata’s first public installation in New York City since his landmark Roosevelt Island Smallpox Hospital project in 1992."